I'll Bring You Back To Me
by Shade the Hero
Summary: She thought she lost him once and now it's happening again, but this time it'll be different. She won't lose him without a fight. Cloti, Set in-game.


_I had written this a while ago. Probably sometime in the Fall not long after I got to this part in the game. I was just so touched by this scene and how Tifa was willing to stay behind and care for him instead of continuing on with the team. I'll tell ya, while Cloud and Tifa were out of the action Barret and Vincent were definitely worth their weight in gold. I felt so bad for Cloud, ending up back in that comatose state. It was a painful thing to see. But during the time Tifa was looking after him I always wondered what happened and what she might have said to him. _

_I love Tifa for several reasons. She's such a strong character, but she also has a few moments where she does need someone stronger to help hold her together. That person has always seemed to be Cloud. I know not everyone is a Cloti fan, but even if they were just friends it seems that he has always been her rock. _

_Hope you all enjoy._

* * *

**I'll Bring You Back To Me**

Tifa sighed as she watched the members of Avalanche leave and close the door behind them. She didn't want to part ways when she knew they needed her help, but there was someone else who needed her more. Someone she never should have burdened with such a heavy task. But she couldn't help it, she wanted to keep him close, after living five years of her life drowning in worry and uncertainty, not know if he was dead or alive. Not knowing if that foolish promise she burdened him with was his strength or his downfall.

Turning away from the window she made her way back to the occupant sitting in the wheelchair. Tifa had to fight back the tears as she watched him. His head was slumped forward, eyes half-open and glazed with mako. A sure sign that he was suffering from mako poisoning. The doctor said it was bad, the worst case of it he had ever seen and it was very possible he wouldn't survive it, let alone come to. The doctor also said he had been babbling complete nonsense.

Tifa took the doctor's sheet again and read through the notes of his condition. She skimmed through until she found the section where his words had been recorded.

_"What number am I?"_

_"I'm just a puppet."_

_"Sephiroth is...calling."_

She slammed the clipboard down.

"Sephiroth," she seethed. It was all _**his **_fault. He was the cause of their pain. He was the reason their lives were a constant struggle. He was the reason their lives went to hell and he was the reason the planet was facing total destruction.

"...S-s-s-Sephir-roth..."

Tifa turned and once again fought back the tears before kneeling next to the one she swore to take care of. She took a cool, damp cloth and wiped his forehead.

"I'm sorry Cloud, I didn't mean to bring up that monster's name."

Whether he couldn't hear her or wasn't able to respond she had no way of knowing. He didn't even react as she brought the cloth to him. But she wasn't about to curl up into a ball and cry. With a new resolve she vowed she'd stay by his side and get him to wake up. If he was willing to protect her through their journey like he had then she should be able to do this for him!

And that's how she spent the next five days. She spent the days talking to him. Traveling down memory lane. Going back to their childhood. She smiled as she found herself admitting to him how she really felt about him as kids. How she was sad that he didn't come around that often, but could understand why now since she was always hanging around the other kids and realized that he was shy.

"I don't really remember what happened that day, but the other kids told me. How I went onto the bridge and fell. I'm sure they didn't tell the whole truth. They said they tried to reach for me and pull me back up, but that's how I knew they were lying."

She looked into Cloud's eyes and smiled.

"I do remember a few things. I remember that blonde hair and those blue eyes reaching for me. No one else could fake that. I remember you grabbed my hand and then we both fell into the water below. It was cold, wet, but you never once let go. I felt your hand until I hit something hard and everything went dark."

She took his hand in hers and clenched it. "I'm positive you saved me that day."

Tifa prayed for a reaction. A finger to twitch, a blink, a moan, anything! But the blonde kept staring into nothing.

She felt the tears threaten to overtake her again. It was getting harder and harder to hold them back as time went by.

The next day Vincent, Barret and Yuffie stopped by to check on them and to see if there was any progress with 'Spiky's' recovery. Tifa forced herself to be strong in front of them, but in truth she felt weaker than a stack of cards. As the trio said their goodbyes and promised to come back with another update soon Vincent stopped in the doorway and held Tifa's gaze for a moment longer. With a slow nod he then left. Tifa took it as a _'hang in there' _nod and smiled. Being one of the most experienced members of their team and a Ex-Turk he could obviously sense her heart-ache.

Two more days had passed and there was still no change. Tifa had begun to run out of happy memories to share with him. She had already told him of the time of when she first met Barret and how it was little Marlene who had gotten lost in the big city of Midgar and Tifa found her and together they looked for her daddy. Barret was so grateful he told her that if she ever needed anything to come to him and he'd help her out. She never forgot and even laughed at the memory of when he came into her new bar and broke up the first ever bar fight in Seventh Heaven. From that day on no one messed with the bouncer with the intimidating gun arm.

Tifa stopped in her tracks when she thought she saw him twitch and thought he had smirked at her story, but it was gone too quick for her to know if she had been seeing things or not. He didn't react to anything else after that.

On the eighth day Tifa found it hard not to cry. The doctor said that if his condition didn't improve soon there wouldn't be much more they could do for him. Cloud was losing the fight and Tifa could see it. He was so pale and he was so cold. Tifa took a blanket off the bed and covered him with it. It didn't seem to do much and only made him sweat more. The doctor confirmed that he was suffering a high fever and nothing was working to bring it down.

Tifa hadn't been sleeping well ever since she found him, but even though the nurse urged her to get some rest she refused to leave Cloud's side when he was in this critical state. She knew that if she went to sleep she'd wake up and he'd be gone. That wasn't going to happen. She'd be with him and wouldn't rest until he snapped out of it.

On the third night of Cloud's critical state Tifa gave it all she had, but eventually she drifted off. In the pre-dawn light she finally woke up. Mentally kicking herself she looked over at Cloud and her heart plummeted. He looked as pale as a ghost. she felt his forehead and sighed with slight relief when he didn't feel as hot as before, but that relief was short-lived. As she looked closer she realized he wasn't breathing.

"No..." she whispered.

Her first thought was to call the doctor, but he had given up hope not long after the others had left and said there was pretty much no chance he could come out of it now. But Tifa refused to believe that.

"Please, no. Cloud, you can't give in now. Keep fighting! Come back to me. Please."

Still no response.

She refused to give in.

"I'm not as strong without you. I'm only as strong as I am now because of you. After what happened in Nibelheim, I told myself I'd be strong so that when I did find you I'd be someone you could rely on. I didn't want to hold you back, I knew you'd be strong and I wanted to be able to measure up and stand on my own. When I found you at the station I was so happy. It was the greatest day of my life. After all those years of wondering and worrying, I finally had you back in my life."

She didn't mean for them to fall, she tried to fight it, but one tear landed on his knee and just like that the floodgates opened and she couldn't hold her tears back any longer.

"Please Cloud, don't leave me again," she begged. "Not like this."

She laid her head in his lap, buried her arms and wept.

She felt something land on her head and as she looked up it fell and rested on her shoulder instead.

It was Cloud's hand.

"...T-t-teef..."

Tifa looked up at him and felt a fresh waves of tears threaten to fall as she looked into his eyes that were closed just a moment ago. They were still glazed and slightly glowing, but he was alive and seemed to register that she was there.

"Cloud?"

"...D-d-don't...cr-cry," he replied.

Tifa launched herself forward and embraced him in a tight hug.

She wanted to scream her thanks to the heavens, but before she could she heard a deafening roar come from outside. Before she could ask what was going on one of the nurses ran in from outside and said there was a huge battle going on in town and that their friends were fighting a huge monster.

Before Tifa could debate over going to help their friends or staying with Cloud the ground beneath them began to shake violently. Tifa made up her mind then. Grabbing what she could she took the handles of the wheelchair and began to wheel Cloud outside.

"Hang on, Cloud. I'll get us somewhere safe, don't worry!"

With that she flew open the door and together they made their way away from the chaos.

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_From that moment onward the scene goes to canon where it shows Tifa running away as the gr__ound opens up and they both fall into the lifestream which begins Cloud's long and painful road back to the world around him._


End file.
